Wednesday, December 28, 2011

This is the first bona fide range session I've had since Andy and I went shooting this past summer. All the shooting I've done in between then has been ad hoc, and generally rushed. Today was kinda rushed, but I still clicked off over 500 rounds from the P30, did some more accuracy testing, and tested out the Safariland #27 that I got in the mail yesterday and modified last night.

As always, click on the pictures to make bigger and more beautiful, and also check to see if there's any more pics in my Photobucket account that I didn't post.

The Safariland #27 has been around for a long long time. Rumor has it that Moses used one to CCW his heater past the Pharaoh's guards, and we all know that was a long time ago. It's an inexpensive holster, which means that you can order one and it'll be at your door way before the more expensive holsters arrive. The robust J-hook is very thick and adds to the mass tucked in your waistband, and also isn't the most secure way of retaining the holster. It swivels a bit even if you tighten the allen bolt, so to remedy that I stippled the J-hook with a soldering iron behind where the bolt goes through and it didn't slip at all within the several hours I walked about the house cleaning up after the kids. The #27 doesn't help to tuck the grip in for AIWB carry so I set about adding a wedge to do just that.

My initial design failed, as the wedge I made was not that secure.

My intent was to mount it where the retention screw is, but it moved around too much. I used the plastic from an old muzzle loading stock that I had sitting around by cutting it off with a sawzall, and finishing it using a file and sand paper:

It took some time for me to figure out how to securely place a wedge on the holster without using an adhesive, and my solution was to build a bracket that went from the retention screw to the J-hook screw:

It was cut out of a piece of sheet metal that I had - I don't know the gauge, but I was able to shear it out with incredible difficulty using tin snips in order to keep from waking the rugrats. I had to bend it to match the contour of the holster, and for that I clamped it in a vice to get the initial shape along my contour lines, and put the finishing touches on it with Klein's and channel lock pliers:

I cleaned it up on the belt grinder with a 600 grit belt, and then drilled holes where the plastic gunstock wedge goes:

I truncated the first wedge I made and matched the holes for the bracket; a forster bit counter-sank the holes where the screws ran through:

The bracket was tapped and the screws were run through the wedge into it. The ends of the screws were ground off with a file, and finished on the belt grinder, making sure I kept the whole thing cool by dunking it in water to keep the plastic wedge from melting:

Here's the final product. I added a Bladetech strap instead of the J-hook to make room for the wedge, and also because I find it to be a more secure way to keep the holster on my belt:

My savvy readers will notice that the screws I used look an awful lot like green self-tapping ground screws that have had the outer edge of the head ground off. The whole thing is a little sloppy, and fugly as hell, but I did all this in between diaper changes, sippy cup refills, bathtime, bedtime, and bourbon time, so cut me some slack. Time is not a luxury I have right now, so I measure once and cut once, hoping it all works out in the end.

The holster now keeps the grip tucked into my sucked-in gut quite well:

This is all well and great, CTone, but didn't you mention a range report in here somewhere?

Sure 'nuff, I took all my gear out for a couple of hours to get some rounds on steel:

Any guesses as to where the shrubbery between those steel targets went to? My brothers and their significant others put a metric ton of 9 mil through there every month. Today was my start into some serious shooting using the P30. I started out doing some bench testing for accuracy with the 124 grain+P Speer Gold Dots and the 147 grain +P Federal HSTs. After further review, I'm going to go with the Gold Dots; they shot right to point of aim at 25 yards, and gave me a 1.865" five shot group:

I got great groups from the HSTs as well, but they were not consistent. I shot two groups with them today off sandbags: one measured 1.929" and the other 2.159". Where it was inconsistent was that the point of aim would shift by an inch; this isn't surprising if you pay careful attention to your group average, and not just the tightest one. Each of the HST groups from today and from my earlier shoot would have four rounds almost touching, and one flyer an inch out. If I shot a whole box for accuracy, I bet my group would grow to around 3" to 4".

I ran 500 rounds of 115 grain Federal POS through it for practice drawing from the #27, and I did OK. I draw from concealment, and in today's cold, windy temps, that meant drawing from under my favorite Dickies hoody, which is many years old and stretched out. Sometimes my sleeves would get trapped in between my grip and my hand, slowing my first shot. I also found out that keeping my Leatherman Wave on my belt at 9 o'clock means that it will snag the bottom of my shirt while lifting it during the draw, thus slowing me down. This is why you practice with your gear exactly like you would be wearing it so you know what works and what doesn't.

The LEM trigger is superb if you practice good trigger control, and horrific if you do it wrong. I'm a big fan of that, as it means that if I learn to not half ass any of my shots at any time, I will be rewarded with consistent hits. The P30's grip lends itself to excellent control and follow up shots. I can't say enough good about it. I haven't had a malfunction of any kind, though if I don't get a proper grip, sometimes my strong hand thumb will prevent the slide from locking back on the last round.

Soon I will be back out for some more shooting, and I'll have more pictures and stuff to post then.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I now have three holsters for this P30 on order, and none of them are here. Humbug.

I stopped into Ganderous Mountainous last week and found a Blackhawk #7 that fit my gun, but it fit very poorly, and was designed with an FBI cant that rides too high for AIWB. My solution was to whip out the ol' Kit, Sewing, Standard Issue and fix the lass. I had to not only set the belt clip for straight drop, but move it up a full inch as well. After that I stitched along the trigger guard and down the dust cover as well to make the gun stay in the holster:

My technique won't win any beauty contests, but it is effective. I now have a cheapy holster that works just fine for quick grocery store carry, and will last me the next few days until I get my Safariland #27 and Bladetech IWB in. I can't leave well enough alone, so I'll be modifying them as well I'm sure.

I'm feeling generous after Christmas this year, so here's some more gun p0rn:

The Spyderco Ladybug is a very well built knife; as well built as their larger blades. That one belongs to my wife, and while she was cleaning out her purse I thought I would snap a pic. Who says size matters?

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Friday, December 23, 2011

I have to record the few shows I watch because of the Noggin channel, and I got around to watching the episode of Triggers which covered artillery. I was fascinated. If you want to get an idea of what the show is about, check out this link where there are lots of video clips from the show.

I read all things military (at least I used to), but one of the areas that I have always neglected is the King of Battle. This doesn't mean I don't respect it; it's just that I've never taken an interest in what the cannon-cockers do for a living. I should have. Cannons and howitzers are as cool as cool can be, and any hoplorite that's worth their salt should be drawn to the big guns.

So how about a story? STORY TIME! Yaaaaaaaay CTONE!! Grab your juice boxes and blankets and come sit next to me.. . .

I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, and my company was in the field testing a piece of equipment to see whether it sucked or not. We had just finished setting up our site at our assigned training area -- I mean, literally, we had just finished hammering in the last GP tent pin -- when we were told to tear down the sight and move to a new training area. Word was that there was a mix up, that hunters were assigned this particular area that day, and the butter-bars (junior officers) in the head-shed (command center) were worried some incompetent bow hunter would sneak within 30 yards of our parking lot sized camp and send a broadhead sailing through the heart of a lance coolie in a case of mistaken identity. Yeah, I know.

Our newly assigned training area was up against the 15' high berm of an impact area where high explosive artillery rounds are fired into. You can already see where this is heading -- because of the fear of bow hunters, which have to sneak up within spitting range of their quarry, we were relocated to the outer edge of where 100 lb steel shells filled with explosives are fired into from miles away, all in the name of safety. Such is the way of the Marine Corps, I guess.

Well, as it turns out, that impact area was very active that day, with several guns firing shells late into the night. Weird, I know. The sound of those rounds coming in and impacting is extremely unnerving, and has to be heard to understand. They seemed like they were hitting only a hundred yards away, but I'm sure they were at least one click (1,000 meters) or more from us as there was a tower with a direct view of the impacts, and they knew we were there. Danger close fire is within 600 meters, only done in dire circumstances in combat, and the range master definitely wouldn't allow that during training.

I was fast asleep in my little Eureka! tent as soon as the sun went down, as I had watch that night and wanted to get some rest. I had an awful cold, as I do right now, and my sinuses were completely clogged, and mouth breathing was giving me a sore throat. To top that off, about every ten minutes one of the guns would send a flare in to light up the area so the impacts could be seen by the tower and forward observer. I was miserable.

I don't recall exactly what time, but early that night one of the artillery rounds came in short, and struck just on the other side of the crest of the berm which was forty yards from my tent. I shot up like somebody had just stabbed me in the ass, and about 8 ounces of warm snot dumped out of my head and down my chest, compliments of the round's concussion. I didn't see the round hit, but several of my buddies who were sitting right outside of my tent sure did. The berm had done its job that night and took most of the force, leaving a bit of smoke and dirt raining down on us. Everyone was way more serious from that point on, and we all took a bit of respect for artillery home with us.

Howitzer shells are no joke, and I'll never forget that experience.

Back to the show, I learned a bunch of stuff that I didn't know, like cannon fuses were sometimes made by filling goose quills with gun powder. There was a part where Wil asks the commander of a French gun why he had to turn towards the bore counter-clockwise with the cartridge shell to load it, when it would be easier to turn clockwise. The officer tells him that during the American Civil War, sharpshooters would watch the guns closely for this exact moment, and were very successful at shooting the shell in the hands of the loader before it could be stuffed into the bore, thus detonating it and killing the gun crew. Apparently the sharpshooters were so good at this, that doctrine was changed to conceal the shell until the last possible moment before handing it to the loader, who didn't argue about why he had to turn counter-clockwise. Pretty cool.

I don't get all that excited about a TV show any more, but I thoroughly enjoy this one. It's a full hour, and I get to learn some stuff.

I have been in a perpetual state of sickness for a month now. The problem is that one of my kids will get sick and pass it on to another after a week or so, which means that I've been holding a sick child that constantly coughs in my face for several weeks. It took awhile for my immune system to be overwhelmed, and now every time I start to recover, another one of my spawn will send the germs right back on my six.

When I was on the hunt for a dive watch, I got the idea to go to Jared because they carry a much larger selection of watches than the local mall. I had never been to one, and as my hand touched the door handle I spotted their "No Guns" sign, making me about-face on the balls of my feet and get back into my car.

The logic of such signs may make sense to some people at first glance, with the desire to not have armed maniacs visiting places that sell expensive jewelry, but they have never considered that said maniacs don't care about the signs during the course of armed robbery, if they are even literate enough to read them to begin with. Like it makes sense to prevent a scumbag from using a firearm to violently steal from a store by posting a sign telling them not to.

But why would someone neeeeeeeed to carry a gun to shop for jewelry? CTone, it just seems so silly! Well, consider that a shopper going into a jewelry store, where merchandise has heavier price tags than say, the dollar store, is very likely to have large amounts of currency on their person; and people leaving the store are likely to have small and highly valuable property in their possession. If you try to think like a criminal, if you were looking for the maximum payout for the holiday season, would you be looking to select a victim from Jiffy Lube, or Jared? Making sense now, huh?

Same thing with banks. Only a criminal would carry a gun to a bank, I've heard it said. Well, that's thinking like a criminal too, as people that harbor that mindset don't see a gun as a defensive weapon for preservation of life, but as an offensive tool to hurt somebody. Shame on you. Sit in a bank parking lot for a couple of minutes and watch who goes in and out. There is a high likelihood that those individuals are flush with cash. A Piggly Wiggly, not so much.

I finished up the two part series last night where Larry Vickers torture tests two Glock pistols: a 3rd gen Glock 17 and a 4th gen Glock 17. While there are countless stories and posts of people torturing Glocks and AR15s, Larry Vickers' tests are epic and educational. There was no disappointment in both the Glock 17 tests, or the Daniel Defense carbine tests; the rifle from the latter test I personally saw at this year's Modern Day Marine Convention, and it looked like hell. I took a cellphone pic, but it turned out to be blurry.

***Spoiler alert: if you want to watch the video and find out for yourself what the outcome was of the Glock 17 tests, take a hike.

There were some of the usual tests, like freezing the pistols in water, burying them in dirt, tossing them in muddy water, and running them over with a truck. All in all, they never failed to fire. In part 1, Larry had the truck run over both of the loaded magazines on concrete. That was telling; the magazines bulged a bit, with the 4th gen magazine baseplate looking mangled. They still fired great, and I note that each pistol used the same magazine for all the tests. Another interesting part is when Larry shot the pistols with #8 shot from a shotgun at 15 yards. It stippled the polymer grips, but didn't break them. Both guns were thrown (loaded, for every test) from a helicopter at 500 feet, and as can be expected, both guns ran fine when they were recovered, and right before that test they were both thrown from a moving vehicle onto gravel. Besides being scratched up, the guns were fine.

The test that separated the men from the boys, so to speak, is when Larry detonated 30 lbs of tannerite about three feet away from a mannequin with both pistols holstered. The decision was made to have them in kydex holsters because this is how cops and the military transport their sidearms. A coffee cup sized jar of tannerite makes a decent sized explosion, and the Glock employees who were present for this test were obviously not prepared for the size bang that they got; it was enough to turn a car into a john boat, if it had been done that way. It took the crew awhile to find both guns -- the 3rd gen fired just fine; the 4th gen's slide had come partially off, which took a minute to get back on, and the trigger was blown away. Larry cycled the slide a few times, loaded one round, and fired the gun using a multi-tool in lieu of the trigger. Very impressive.

It's possible that other firearms can take this sort of abuse and still function, but it's telling to actually see it, which is good advertisement for Glock. When the conversation of guns turns to "torture test", usually the image of Glock comes up, since Glock owners gleefully beat them up just to find out what it takes to make them stop ticking. I've found this thought process applies to Cold Steel knives as well; there are plenty of hard core knives out there that will take punishment, but Cold Steel does a comprehensive test on all their knives every other year. Say what you want to about it, but Glock and Cold Steel definitely put their money where their mouth is, and I continue to support them.

I'm amazed that there's such a response to the Fed Ex guy throwing a computer box over a fence. If that bothers anybody, their minds would be blown if they ever witnessed what goes on in the distribution centers.

Many moons ago I worked in a UPS distro center as a box kicker, and man, did I see some shit. The process of unpacking and packing boxes into trucks is nowhere near gentle, even if you are careful. You're talking thousands of packages an hour have to be shoved violently out of a truck onto rollers and conveyors, and then shoved violently back into another truck. This is done as fast as the human body will allow, and UPS doesn't issue you kid-gloves, nor do they issue common sense. I've seen heavy steel farm equipment loaded right on top of stacks of Gateway computers, boxes marked 'fragile' on every corner get stuck at the junction between conveyors and sheared clean in half, and boxes fall off conveyors into the dark abyss below, never to be seen again. It happens.

Now, some of the stuff that people see fit to send through the mail is nothing short of unbelievable. I never had live bees come through my center, like the USPS, but I do recall a live goldfish sent in a clear glass tank with plastic wrap rubber-banded around the top and a shipping sticker stuck to the side. That had to be some sort of sick test to see if it would get broke. We had a giant box of pink rubber dildos break open on a conveyor one morning; there had to have been 500 or more of them tumbling and fumbling all over the place, getting hung up on the belts, and nobody had any interest in grabbing ahold of them to put them back in, if you know what I mean. You never can tell what's in the faceless brown boxes until they bust open, spilling a thousand New Kids on the Block CDs or leopard print negligees all over the place. The worst was lip balm; break open a box of that and you would have a huge mess. By far the most destroyed item was Sylvania fluorescent light bulb tubes; those you could identify by their box, and, no lie, they were on every single truck. I would just shake my head at the stupidity of sending those through the mail - eight out of every ten boxes would be completely crushed, with white powdered glass leaking from the corners. I didn't know where the origin of the stupidity was -- from somebody who thought it was safe to mail them, or UPS continuing to accept them knowing they would have to compensate whomever for all the destroyed boxes.

If you think your mailman is rough with your stuff, you can't imagine what goes on where you can't see. Fed Ex box-kickers probably put luggage handlers to shame when it comes to putting their hands on your property, so I wouldn't get all worked up over the delivery guy. Believe me, you don't really want to know what Brown does for you.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

My brother emailed this video to me of a convenience store owner in Turkey who shoots a knife wielding attacker. This video is somewhat graphic, as the attacker slashes a man's throat and repeatedly slashes at two other men. ***Warning: NSFW -- Graphic***

The store owner takes his sweet time getting his pistol into play, but when he does he makes a fatal (I think) single shot on a moving target after being stabbed and hacked. Pretty impressive. I think that keeping your sidearm in condition one on your person at all times is the way to go.

Of course, my imagination is asking the question of whether steel cases will allow more powder than brass cases, and also whether steel will handle higher pressures. I sometimes like to push the envelope during load development, and if I can jam another grain or two of powder in the case or load up another 3k psi above SAAMI specs, then I'm all about it.

Monday, December 19, 2011

My HK P30 has finally arived. Unfortunately, the Bladetech holster that I ordered has not, as in-stock items doesn't apply to relatively new H und K products. Because of that, I couldn't do any draws, so I stuck with testing out some defensive ammo to see what it likes.

A few months ago I ordered 1k rounds of 115 grain Federal ammo from Ammoforsale.com. The price couldn't be beat. I also ordered some 147 grain Federal HST +P, 147 grain Winchester Ranger-T, 124 grain Speer Gold Dot +P, and 124 grain Remington Golden Saber +P Bonded from wherever I could get it in 50 round boxes. I ran these loads through my chronograph, but I'll have to update this post with both the exact velocity information and group measurements as I don't have it at my fingertips at the moment. I shot two 5-shot groups for accuracy at 25 yards, which let me get the aftermarket Meprolight Tru-Dot sights dialed in.

The P30 didn't like the Ranger-Ts all that much; velocity was around 980 fps and the accuracy was consistently at just over 3". That's about what it gives the Glock 17, so I wasn't surprised. The Golden Sabers were stringing vertically, with by groups running over 3", but only because of flyers. The best four for both GS groups ran around 2.5", and I blame my shooting on the fact that I forgot to bring my folding table to shoot off of, and had to resort to using the back of my smiley face chair as support while crouching. Not the greatest setup for accuracy. Velocity for the GSs was near 1,150 fps. The Gold Dots had a couple of flyers too, but I think they can be counted on to shoot ten rounds into 2" or less, and velocity was about 1,178 fps if I recall. These rounds shot exactly to point of aim, while everything else shot a bit high. I'm a big fan of the Gold Dots, and they may become my carry load if I have any issues from the HSTs:

As you can see from the shot holes marked with a sharpie line, the first group was a scootch under 2" for the best four if you discount that one flyer, but the second group measured 1.3" center to center. Velocity averaged 1,047 fps. This load also felt pretty mild, with the 124 grain +Ps giving a noticable amount of snap. For fun, I shot a Gold Dot and an HST through four layers of denim and into water jugs to see if they would expand:

I only had six water jugs, and the Gold Dot penetrated into the 5th jug, destroying the first one. So I did what any good ol' Virginia boy would do in such a situation and duct taped the shot holes. Get a good look at my jugs:

Yes, I'm ghetto, but it worked well enough. The HST went clean through three jugs and stopped up against a fourth:

The Gold Dot went further because it didn't open up as much.

I don't have the exact measurements at hand at the moment, but the Gold Dot was in the mid .5"s and the HST was in the upper .6"s in average diameter. At the widest point the HST measured .712", which is pretty amazing for a 9mm bullet. I tried to put enough tape on the remaining water jugs to test a 90 grain Gold Dot from the Kel-Tec P3AT, but the last jug lost enough water that the round went through and was unrecovered. It did make it through the denim and two full jugs, and the exit hole on the last jug looked like the bullet had expanded quite a bit. Velocity was 989 for an average of five shots if I recall.

To finish off the short range trip I clicked off two boxes of the 115 grain Federals. I did get velocity data off of those as well, and I'll post them later. Since I didn't have a holster, I kept the gun low and would do some push-outs to see how the transition from Glock to HK trigger would go. The P30s LEM V2" 5.5ish trigger pull is much longer than the Glock, and the reset is basically all the way forward. There's a bunch of light takeup before it tightens up, and another 1/16th of an inch breaks the shot. It's not bad, and I can definitely get used to it, but I did find myself short stroking the trigger a few times, and I would often pull shots low. I found that when I pressed the gun forward onto the target, it worked best if I took all the slack out of the trigger before coming to full extention, and then breaking the shot right as the sights were lined up.

I'm a big fan of the interchangable grip panels on the P30. It surprised me on which ones I ended up using; I have the small backstrap on, with a large left panel and medium right panel. If I close my eyes and press the unloaded pistol out in front of me, when I open them the sights are perfectly level every time. I did this over and over with the small and medium backstrap until I was certain the small one was the way to go, and I practiced working the trigger in my basement at the Huron target Mike W. and Nancy gave me (no offense to Hurons). There's 8" of reinforced concrete behind it, so that's what I snap in on in the abundant free time that I have:

The differences in size between the P30 and the Glock 17 are mainly in the slide length, with the grip being slightly shorter and less of an angle with the P30:

The P30 is basically right in between the Glock 17 and Glock 19 in grip length (closer to the G19), and the slide is a touch shorter than the Glock 19. Perfect carry size. Once I get the Bladetech in, I'll modify it into an atrocity like my Glock 17 holster and carry it until my Custom Carry Concepts Shaggy holster comes in sometime in the distant future. As promised, here's the abominable G17 holster:

It's ugly as sin but it works great. Don't judge!

I'll have more range reports to follow in the near future, hopefully. I'll have some time off after Christmas, and I plan on shooting as much as possible. I still want to sandbag this gun from a bench to see if I can shrink those groups a bit, but it looks like the HST is going to be my carry load. I also plan on testing out the V4 springs that I have for it to see if I like a heavier trigger pull.

Friday, December 16, 2011

There's a good bit of chest-beating 'yo-'bro stuff in there, and I did find it to have some cliche stuff like "knockdown power" and the like, but there's a ton of shooting stuff on full auto in slow motion, so it's like totally worth it brah. You may not be smarter at the end, but I gaurantee you will be entertained.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

In the 28 hours that it took for my name to be approved for a new firearm transfer, I came to the conclusion that I will not go through that process ever again. Though I did willingly consent beforehand, and He who derives a benefit from a thing, ought to feel the disadvantages attending it, I've had my fill, and will stick with private sales from here on out. A man should never feel so convicted in his heart that he questions whether he is a criminal or not, or questions who he is. It is unconscionable.

To be clear, I do not blame those within the Virginia State Police or FBI who administrate background checks, as they are not the ones who placed the repulsive concept of pre-criminalization on us; that blame lies with the greater American public first and foremost for not only agreeing to this insanity up front, and perpetually consenting to it, but for also continuing to demand it, under the naive belief that scumbags would be eradicated if we could only ensnare them with a piece of paper. I'm ashamed of myself that I ever fell under that criteria.

Last night I was doing mental backflips trying to find out what it was that would make a state and federal government hesitate to approve of a transfer. Though nobody could tell, as I have a knack for taking physical, mental, and emotional punishment with a calm demeanor, I was questioning myself over and over until I was actually thinking "what did I do wrong?" It was there where I realised I had left the Line of Departure into a hostile place that I had no business being.

I recall a time when I was in sunny Ramadi, talking to my beautiful wife on a private, Iridium satellite phone, when she told me she was delayed for a transfer for a handgun. To say she was upset is an understatement, and no doubt she was feeling exactly like I was last night: convicted. Though she had harmed no one, she combed through her past out loud to me, searching for a crime she didn't commit. I tried to convince her that everything was OK, and it did turn out to be -- that moment was my first warning notice of how harmful a background check could be, and I missed it. A dear friend of mine, who was instrumental in keeping me grounded last night, was also delayed on a gun purchase some time ago, and he also felt the same convicting thoughts -- that was the second notice that I again missed. Last night was final notice.

Whether you've ever bought a gun or not, or have any intention to, feeling convicted of something you didn't do is something everyone has probably experienced at one time. It's similar to the feeling of being falsely accused of something; not a - "you're a poopie-head" accusation, but a serious one, like - "you stole from me, didn't you?!?" The latter has the tendency to cut very deep. Having to explain yourself and why you're not in the wrong used to be a viscerally unnatural act. There was a time where it used to be a man would recoil at such a thing, as it was against all human nature to stand quietly in the face of an accusation -- "Are you calling me a liar?" Perhaps it's "reality shows" and bad TV that has put us into the mindset of constantly defending who we are, that I'm-right-and-you're-wrong, and getting comfortable with conflict and confrontation in situations we do not belong in. I don't know about y'all, but I am done putting myself in the middle of situations like that.

So now I'm here, having passed through the eye of the needle, and before too long somebody will come across this post and scoff "Big deal. Get over it. It's for the greater good. Getting criminals off the street is worth making millions of good people go through a background check." My retort is to try it sometime. If you get approved in two minutes, close enough to "instant" I guess, then you most likely won't get the full effect and have an understanding. Consider though that very few transfer denials are even prosecuted (also note in there that ATF agents didn't feel that most of the prohibited persons were dangerous enough to timely retrieve a sold gun). If you still feel that catching a handful of people that probably aren't dangerous is worth criminalizing tens of millions of Americans every year, then you can have the system. Hook, line, and sinker. As for me, I'm out.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

While it is very intricately made, and pretty neat considering the machining involved, the price of $800 made me snort and laugh at the same time. "Art" is the best word for it; I don't see any utility whatsoever here:

I already know the problem here: I'm not a criminal, so I must not qualify for the "instant" part.

in·stant [in-stuhnt]noun1. an infinitesimal or very short space of time; a moment: They arrived not an instant too soon.2. the point of time now present or present with reference to some action or event.

Considering that the word doesn't match reality in regards to the situation here, I have substituted a more descriptive word for the system. If you still don't see why people like myself bitch about these background checks, let me just direct you to the information page for Virginia's VCHECK system:

This program became operational on November 1, 1989, and provides for a timely, point-of-sale, approval or disapproval decision regarding the sale or transfer of all firearms (except antiques) based upon the results of a criminal history record information (CHRI) check concerning the prospective purchaser pursuant to§18.2-308.2:2 of the Code of Virginia.

Emphasis mine. The VSP cannot now say that their background check system is timely, because my transaction last night was not approved before the store closed, thus violating the point-of-sale stipulation. Furthermore, if there isn't an approval or disapproval decision, the system has failed to work as required.I heard from the dealer that ran the background check for my HK P30 last night that delays in the state were so bad, gun shows were reporting a 50% loss on sales. The VCDL is reporting significant hangups as well. I guess Tim Kaine got what he wanted after all, as I now have a gun that's paid for but not in my hands because of bureaucratic red tape. Way to go. But if it catches one violent criminal, it's all worth it, right? (That's a joke)

Can anyone in the class explain to me how a vague, half-assed system intended to catch a criminal for a crime they may or may not commit is not as destructive as inhibiting lawful commerce and transfer of property? Anyone?

"Oh, but CTone, what if some badguy was trying to buy a handgun to go on a murder spree; wouldn't you want them to be delayed or denied?" I'll answer that right after you answer this: what if a soccer mom was trying to buy a handgun to protect herself from her already armed ex-spouse who has intent to do her serious bodily harm or kill her? Is it fine and dandy for her to be delayed to? Which scenario do you think happens more often? The "what if" game cuts both ways, and I highly doubt these background check systems actually help convict criminals. Fortunately, there's a push to rid Virginia of their redundant, needless, and ineffective system, and I can only hope that with time, the nation will shed this ludicrous idea of pre-criminalizing persons for crimes they haven't committed.

The idea of low flow toilets had to have been conceived by stinky hippie engineers who dreamed of an invention to torture the common man. Little did they know about the severe water overuse in B.F., Virginia because toilets in a certain commercial building were flushed at least three times per use. There are babies suffering somewhere, in some forgotten country probably ending in -stan, because of this insane overuse of water here. Trust me.

Secondary to the malicious intent of torturing mankind and making foreign babies suffer is the thought that by making toilets use less water, somehow polar bears and penguins would have more ice to sit on. Or some shit like that. Saving water is what hippies do, damn the reasons and consequences, and they thought that that end could be accomplished in the engineering department of American Standard. What they in fact did is create toilets that have to be flushed, re-flushed, and re-flushed again, and possibly re-flushed several more times in order to achieve the same outcome as a toilet that uses twice as much water in one flush, which runs counter to the "low flow" label that they're branded with.

"High efficiency," my ass.

When using a toilet in the building where I work, there are always leftovers if you dare to check. Every single time. Before you even use the toilet, the very first thing you have to do is flush; and once you're done, it's a mandatory two flushes at the very least, and there will still be leftovers. And if your portion size is. . . .ummmm. . . let's say larger than industry standard, sometimes you wind up with a turd stuck fast to the side of the bowl that a measly 1.6 gallons of water just can't dislodge. That's a fact. With all the snorting toilets in the men's room, and the muffled toilet snorts heard through the wall from the ladies room, you would think a sounder of agitated warthogs lived here.

So the end result is that more water is used instead of less, which could all have been avoided by leaving toilet technology well enough alone; something some folks just can't seem to do. Accept that there are some things in life that can't be improved upon: take forks for example (You now associate turds with forks. Thanks, CTone!). There isn't anything that can be done to improve how forks function. Forks design has stayed pretty much the same for hundreds of years, if not thousands, but you can bet that some hairy toed hippie has thought of shortening the fork's tines to make people use less food or something, and thus save the moose. Following in that logic, maybe we can save the Teamster population by making shovels smaller, too; or make poop disappear just as well as 3.5 gallons by using half as much.

Fix it! Or at the very least, add a selector switch. I mean, we have adjustable gas blocks. Why not adjustable toilet flow regulators?

"Oooof. This one's gonna be a doozie! Better switch from "standard" to "dirty.""

Friday, December 9, 2011

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The president of New Hampshire’s Plymouth State University told students Thursday they don’t have to come to class Friday because activists may appear on campus with loaded guns to protest the school’s ban on weapons on campus.

Whaaaaaaat?!? Those rebels! Anyone who would willingly break the law must have ill intent!

Later, the two said the weapons would not be loaded and would have trigger locks and other safety devices on them, the university said.

You mean these hooligans gave advanced notice to the university that the firearms they intend to bring to their claimed peaceful protest will have locks on them and be in plain view? Ms. Steen, you did the right thing. Who knows if these outrageous people will suddenly change their mind, unlock those weapons, load them, and then take out as many innocents as possible, their cause for safety be damned.

Safety first, I always say. And nothing is more useful towards safety than ensuring that non-violent folks who pass out literature regarding unsafe university policies don't have an audience. That's safer than safe. I would go so far as to personally write each student and staffer a day-pass from class on bubble wrap, so their finger tips don't get bruised when I handed it to them. Of course, I would announce this privilege softly so as to not panic the herd.

There is no need for bravery in this new world, as plans are in the works to start a society where fear has been forbiden, and it will be enforced.

Look, the only people who should be authorized to carry a weapon on campus are cops. Since these boys haven't been highly trained to handle the icky things, they have no business with weapons of death -- locked or not. Wait, what?

Jardis resigned from the Epping Police Department last year after he apparently was suspended, the Union Leader reported in 2010.

Oh. Well. . . .maybe he forgot all that training. It's well known that once you leave the force, you revert back to being a drooling moron like the rest of us. Come. . . join our ranks, good sir!

I only wish I lived in a country where I have to make stuff like this up.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The Virginia Tech shooting on Thursday brings up an interesting topic back in the Hoosier State. An Indiana lawmaker wants to allow guns on college campuses.

Sounds like a plan. I like it. Then along comes some yayhoo to poo-poo the idea without really thinking about what they're saying:

"Police of all types are trained for situations like the one that occurred at Virginia Tech. Students with gun permits are usually not."

Trained for what situation? The one yesterday? I don't think anyone has said that carrying a weapon for personal defense guarantees your survival, as can be seen with the slaying of the officer. Police officers are trained in policing, not getting ambushed. As for the 2007 VA Tech massacre, what is he suggesting? That police officers are trained to be shot in a classroom? Sure, cops have been trained to pool their resources together and hunt down an active shooter, but nobody is saying that students need a personal arm for that because finding and stopping a crazed gunman is not their job. It's has nothing to do with it. The concept of a student keeping a firearm for an active shooter scenario is that they won't be standing there with their dick in their hand if a shooter busts into the room shooting.

We see this time after time after time from ignorant cops, lawmakers and the media: blurring the lines between what a SWAT team uses firearms for -- offensive tactics -- and what everyone else (the general public) uses them for -- defensive tactics. The difference between the two is that cops on a SWAT team are generally not attacked without warning while peacefully receiving instruction in a classroom. If a student or teacher need their weapon, they won't need to go looking for the bad guy; the bad guy will be trying to systematically murder people several feet away. They won't be hard to spot.

"[For police] To come and find several people with guns drawn and to try and decide in a split second whether or not that person is acting appropriately or not would be almost impossible for a responding officer," Bill Mercier of the ISU Police Department said.

If an armed student gets in a shootout with a gunman, how long does Officer Mercier expect this to go on for before his merry men with guns get there? It's known to take a long time for the cops to respond, which is why law enforcement went from "wait for the SWAT team" like at Columbine, to "four man fire team of responding officers" like before the VA Tech massacre, to "first officer on scene goes after the shooter" -- time. The longer it takes for guys with guns to put holes in the psycho, the more lives the psycho will take. That highly trained law enforcement element that is equipped to handle an armed, murderous gunman arrive well after the shooter has had his way with his victims, which doesn't do much good for the poor folks trapped in the room with him. That goes for non-active shooter scenarios like forcible rape, aggrevated assault, robbery, savage mob beatings, and the like, too.

Take note that in yesterday's shooting at VA Tech, 15 minutes went by before anyone even called in that the cop had been shot in broad daylight in a parking lot. And whoopidee-doo that the responding law enforcement team had automatic weapons, body armor, radios, and wanted to find the bad guy and kick his ass; the gunman had finished the job and killed himself. The cavalry aren't there when the shooting starts -- the students are, hiding under a desk hoping to not get shot in the back of the head, because that's their only option. Of all the mass shootings in recent history that I recall, the Fort Hood shooting is the only one I know of where responding officers were there in time to exchange fire with the workplace violence guy crazed muslim extremist, and that attack was ironically in a place full of Soldiers who are trained to go after scumbags with firearms but were unarmed by shitty base policy.

Then we have the qualified experts weigh in:

Student Government President Nick Utterback says this isn't a law the SGA hopes to pass. "Just allowing more students to carry guns on campus with a permit that is easily obtained is just a dangerous situation for everyone," Utterback said.

That's right, nothing. If you make the personal choice to not have the means to prevent your untimely death via spree shooter, then good on you. You're right. Seriously. There's no wrong answer there, because it's your life; and to be quite honest there's a super small chance you will ever need that weapon and it's a huge pain in the ass to carry it. It's also a major responsibility, which is why very few students would likely chose to carry a firearm anyways, which is why this whole fiasco of allowing them amounts to nothing. Conversely, the few students that find it's worth the inconvenience to carry a weapon to protect their gift of life, and embrace the responsibility that comes with it. . . .well, those are the very people you would want sitting next to you when Jijadi Jim Jr. decides he's had enough of the infidel's poisonous teaching and starts shooting up the joint, and to be brutally honest, you don't possess the right to tell them that they can't.

What this boils down to is cops like officer Mercier can only see things from their own point of view, and haven't taken the time to consider what it's like for those who's job is not law enforcement. Or playing music:

"I can't stand up and dictate to the world: 'it's over -- no more guns'.

Yeah, because that would turn the world back to the peace and love that it used to be:

Look at all those joyfull people who blessedly haven't been exposed to firearms. What a wonderful time it was for all.

Gesturing to the statue, he said: "It was a bad day. But it was a bad day because someone took one of these and shot John."

Yes, Ringo, before those evil guns were created the world was a swell place because mankind hadn't figured yet how to hand out bad days.

For Ringo so loved the world that he gave his only begotten opinion. I'm not impressed.

It doesn't seem like it's been seven years since the murder of one of the world's most talented guitarists. I realize that he played in a musical niche that most people don't care for, or even appreciate, but I didn't take it too well when he was killed.

"Dimebag" Darrel Abbott was killed on stage this day in 2004 in Columbus, Ohio by a scumbag with a handgun. Here is a video that offers a view of a mass shooting that may change your perspective a bit on what happens.

First thing I noticed was that the audience didn't go anywhere, or seem to panic at all; they kind of just stood there for several minutes like a bunch of goons and watched a gunman murder five people. Next, one of the band's technicians repeatedly attacked the gunman, and was shot multiple times all over his body, including his chest, and yet he still persisted in trying to stop the gunman from killing his friends. The whole time he was getting shot fighting the gunman, he was pleading for somebody to help him. Nobody did. Hundreds of men stood there quite calmly and watched him fight a madman alone.

A cop finally walks in with a shotgun and, when the gunman took a hostage and pointed his pistol at his head, the cop shot the gunman and killed him. The most profound part was the look on the officer's face when he walked away after killing the psycho; to me it looks like a man that did the hard thing that day, even though he didn't want to. The last thing was I noticed was what another band tech said while he was watching his friends get murdered: "I kept screaming NO! Ya' know, but. . . there was nothing I could do."

"There was nothing I could do" is not an excuse that I ever want the option of being able to make. I willingly inconvenience my life by a substantial margin just so I don't ever have to face that regret; so there's something I can do in a moment where someone may need me. I'm not knocking the guy; shit happens in life and we chose day to day how we will be postured to prepare for it.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

An ARFCOM thread on why police officers don't put down animals that have been crippled by traffic. I commented that often it's department policy that either prohibits this practice, or makes it a big ball of red tape in order to do so, and not because cops are heartless and like to watch bambi struggle for life on roadways.

True story:Nine years ago I was home from Camp Lejeune for the weekend, driving back from the video store (we still had those then) at about 10:00 at night on a four lane non-divided highway. I was close behind the only other car on the road at the time -- a black Nissan Pathfinder -- when two deer crossed the highway from our left, the trailing one getting hit on the front end of the Nissan. I could tell that he hit that deer really hard, as he caught it with the entire front end, and we were moving along at just over 50 mph. We both stopped, checked the damage, and I gave the driver and his wife my personal information as a witness in case their insurance scumbags tried to screw them on getting the car fixed. The driver and I found the deer on the edge of the road on the right side about fifty yards behind us, still alive, with its spine broken just forward of its hips. It kept trying to stand up, and because its back legs didn't work it would topple over to its left, bringing it closer and closer to the middle of the roadway.

County deputies show up, and take a solid ten minutes to get permission from the Sheriff or Sergeant or whomever was in charge that night to publicly execute this crippled doe. State cops show up stop traffic both ways, which was now significantly built up, and what I presume to have been the most junior county deputy of the six or so who were there racks the slide to chamber a round (I don't know why she didn't have her duty weapon in condition 1, but I saw it with my own eyes that she carried on an empty chamber). Me and the driver were walking back to our cars when I heard the shot. . . . and then another. . . .and then another.

I knew immediately what was going on, so I said goodbye to the driver and headed back down to see what kind of macabre scene this clueless deputy had just subjected her audience of onlookers to. It was. . . . substantial.

She had shot this youthful, two or three year old doe three times in the face at close range, but hadn't hit anything of importance -- and by importance I mean something structurally vital that would mercifully end the poor critter's life as humanely as possible. All the other jolly cops standing around weren't giving her any instruction, as they themselves didn't know how in the world this superhuman deer could take three rounds of .40 S&W in the head and still be completely alert, looking around with blood pouring out from what was left of her nose and jaw. I note that one of the police cruisers was positioned in the turn lane so that its headlights fully illuminated the public display of incompetence, and traffic was stopped not more than 75 yards away.

Whom I believed to be the senior deputy said: "Well, we'll just have to wait for the ol' girl to bleed out." I told them all in not the most tactful voice that we would be there for awhile, as superficial gun shot wounds have that tendency to, you know, heal, and that a deer missing all its teeth would definitely die -- of starvation -- but there would be a little bit too much overtime involved with the supervision of that. Then, like a middle-school science teacher, I pointed out that the deer did in fact have a head, which included the brain housing group, and attached to that was the beak-like extension of the jaw and nose, that didn't. Deputy Sally hadn't hit that brain housing group, but if she could do that, then everybody could go home.

More permission was asked for more rounds to be expended on behalf of this traumatized deer, and when it was given I pointed out just where to shoot.

Me: "Right here." (pointing to a spot right below the ear)Cop: "Right where?"Me: (Grabbing the deer by the ear and turning her head towards the cruiser's lights) "Here. Shoot her with one round here."Cop: "Oh. . .ok" (as she starts to aim from six feet away I stop her)Me: (pointing to the muzzle of her Sig pistol) "No ma'am. This is a doe. It doesn't have antlers, so it can't hurt you. Put your weapon against her head so that you don't miss."

At the crack of the gun it was finally over. All the cops looked at me like I was some sort of deer whisperer, knowing just what to do. In reality, I've just killed a ton of animals and know where the vitals are; and that doe would have been better served if, at the moment I found her, I had killed her with my pocket knife. For this reason I don't encourage cops to put animals out of their misery because, in my opinion, they are much more likely to put them IN misery.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A look at the Mossberg 590, the Benelli 1014, and various other shotguns (I see a pistol gripped Mossberg 835 in there. What do you see?) as used by military forces in pictures. There are some scantily clad women sprinkled in there as well, just letting you know. Funny, I just saw Kate Mara in the movie Shooter this weekend. Weird.

And one of those high resolution pics -- #17 from the film Dead Presidents -- seems. . . .familiar to me. Where have we seen that one before?

Recently, State Attorney General Eric Schneidermann announced that his office plans to crackdown on illegal gun distribution in the state. In fact, a probe conducted by his office revealed that many gun sellers disregard state mandated background checks, according to the Associated Press.

Ohhhhhhhhh. You mean she's backing a STATE law that would make the process of buying and selling firearms in New York even more illegal and convoluted. . . . I read you now. For a minute there I thought a member of congress actually gave a shit about preventing violent people from using firearms to commit violent crimes. My bad. I see now that state commerce has captured the interest of Rep. Gillibrand (I thought she was pro-gun? David Codrea was right about her, you know).

Well, you can't blame a snake for biting any more than you can blame a revenuer for revenuin'.

Since I'm knuckle deep in this article now, I guess I should let the mocking begin. I did find this amusing:

An individual gun seller can is legally accountable for the guns they sell, but not a gun show operator.

What's a "gun seller can?" Is that like a can of man that sells guns? I'm imagining now a secret factory run by the NRA that packages men who sell firearms into little cans in order to execute an eeeeeevil covert plot to saturate the country with individual gun sellers. The logistics of it is genius -- a pickup truck can only handle perhaps a half dozen individual gun sellers in the bed; I can't even fathom how many cans of men will fit back there. Hundreds maybe? Thousands?

And "gun show operators?" I admit to seeing one or two of those guys at every gun show I've ever been to -- they're the ones wearing old camo, and decked out in cheap nylon holsters and vests with too many pockets, handing out High Points to kids like candy. They're easy to spot, with all those patches and urine stains on their uniforms, and more than a little creepy. I had no idea they were exempt from state laws! That's totally backwards! Rep. Gillibrand is absolutely right: Gun Show Special Warfare Operators should be accountable for the guns they sell, but not canned men who sell guns. They're in a can, so they can't do much harm. Besides, how many guns will fit in a can?

Holy shit! Not *A* prison; we're talking multiple prisons! From what I'm reading here, if a gun trafficker gets caught, the court could have him torn to pieces and sent to prisons all over the state! Maybe they'll put his head on a pike in one prison, and gibbet his bloody torso in another. That's a bit morbid, but it would surely do more for placing fear in illegal gun traffickers than a bill that targets basically anyone not perfectly rehersed in the law.

Monday, December 5, 2011

I saw this stuff this weekend on Guns & Ammo TV where Patrick Sweeney and Dave Emary from Hornady's engineering department ran them through the FBI's test protocol. It's pretty impressive. A major hangup for some folks regarding the Critical Defense lineup is that it's not designed to pass these tests, but the Critical Duty lineup looks good to go. It does remedy the problem of hollow point ammo clogging up with denim or other materials and failing to expand because it has the Flexlock tip in the nose just like Critical Defense ammo. It's also not a bonded bullet; the core is mechanically locked to the jacket using a deep groove, which is the same concept of the non-bonded Remington Golden Saber bullet, but better executed. From what I saw on the show, the expansion is not as dramatic as some of the other defensive ammo on the market, which is probably why it was so uniform with penetration.

It is being tauted as "Law Enforcement Ammo", but at least it's not emblazoned on the box, not that I can tell anyways. For 9mm, there's a standard pressure and +P offering in 135 grains, with both of them being more towards the hot side. The 175 grain 40 S&W load seems to be rather warm as well.

Critical DUTY™ handgun ammunition is built to meet the needs and requirements of LAW ENFORCEMENT and TACTICAL PROFESSIONALS, as well as those law abiding citizens who prefer a full-size handgun for their personal protection and demand superior barrier penetration and subsequent terminal performance.*

Friday, December 2, 2011

Once upon a time there were a ton of cool shows on all sorts of military disciplines on The Military Channel: Future Weapons, Weaponology, Ultimate Weapons, Weapon Masters -- all of these shows were great to watch (they're still on, but all re-runs), but now The Military Channel has turned into the Nazi Channel. Seriously; when I hit the channel guide, the lineup is all "Hitler's Shock Troops," "Hitler's War Machine," "Cooking with Hitler," "Nazi Tank Battles," "Nazi UFO Conspiracy," "Nazi Ten-Minute Ab Workout." It's a Nazi cornucopia; who wants to watch that shit 24/7?

There is a review at Military Morons covering the Vicker's magazine release and slide stop. I've recently put both of these products on my Glock 17 and 26, and find them to be an excellent. Glock should really put both of these on their guns in the factory; they're indispensable. I like my Glocks to have commonality of parts so that they feel the same, so all modifications are done the same for both.

I have large hands, and even I can't reach the stock Glock magazine release without changing my grip. The Vicker's mag release is just long enough that I can dump the mag without changing my grip, but not long enough to inadvertently drop the mag if the gun is placed on its side on a flat surface. Installation is about as easy as changing a memory card in a camera.

On stock Glock pistols, there is what they call a "slide stop", as Glock firmly recommends using the overhand method to charge the gun with a cartridge from a freshly inserted magazine. The slide stop can be used to release the slide, but it's very hard to do, especially under stress. Glock also has an aftermarket extended slide release that you can add to the gun, and it works very well -- too well for folks like myself who are used to a "high thumbs" grip from shooting 1911s. This grip can cause either one of the thumbs to be in contact with the slide release, which often results in the slide not locking back when the magazine runs out; and for me, it also causes the slide release to ride against the slide, inducing malfunctions. The remedy is the Vicker's slide release modeled after the Smith & Wesson M&P slide release.

Installation of this part takes a whopping minute or so with the use of a punch to press out a pin. Piece of cake. It's very unobtrusive, and yet is very easy to get to when you're dropping a locked slide on a fresh round. I'm a big fan. Both of these parts combined cost less then $30 dollars, and I highly recommend them.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Over 200 original pictures from the Civil War**NSFW: Graphic pictures of bodies**.There's some seriously hard looking men in these photos, and half of them look drunk. I would never have blamed them if they were. It's wild to see pictures of my hometown in ruins. This town is bristling with history from the war and, unfortunately, we lose more and more of it every year as the population here increases. The county responds by turning large pieces of land into historical "battlefield" areas and parks to keep developers from raping what's left of the place, but then the parks won't let you do anything on the land but glance at the monuments and such. Who knows how much history is buried in the many parks here, waiting to be found by folks with metal detectors. Still, if you're looking for history on the Civil War, you'd be hard pressed to find more of it in one place than any of the counties along the Rappahannock river.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Fevers and snot and much much worse are my idea of a good time. I forgot I signed up for that.

Thanksgiving was great this year, and I have much to be thankful for. It broke my heart to have to eat thanksgiving lunch/dinner with both my family and my wife's family. Eating twice the food was tough, but I hung in there.

I am no longer the owner of a 1911 (temprarily), but will soon be the owner of an H&K P30. With that, there are two holsters on order for it; one of which will be here sometime in the next six months, the other should be here this week. Ammunition is on order and has been rolling in, and night sights should be here any day now, too. It's all coming together.

When I have time this week (riiiiiiight) I'm going to have to put in some hard labor to make a sufficient backstop for the amount of shooting I plan to do in the next several weeks, just to be extra safe. These days there are houses all over the place, so I want to know precisely where my rounds stop. The old target shed has long since collapsed into heap of ruin, not long after I took these pictures of it:

It's been replaced by the steel Nevco targets, and I plan to add more. I drag those pictures out every once in a while because I get a kick out of them. There's a lot of holes there!

I've voiced my opinions on 1st focal plane reticles on low power optics before because I think it's a ridiculous concept for the most part, but then I read Kyle Defoor's post on the U.S. Optics SN-4S and how it has a reticle on both planes, and I was impressed. What a great idea. The large outer ring stays the same size between 1 - 4 power, with only the ranging reticle growing in size.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

This weekend I picked up two 8" round AR500 steel targets with hangers from GreenTop, and set them up and tested them out. I'm a big fan. After shooting Andy's steel at 200 yards with a rifle, I was sold, so when I got the opportunity to buy them sans shipping cost, I jumped on it.

I was fortunate to find the leftover 9mm rounds that were hidden from that range trip with Andy, and my brother, his girlfriend, and I shot up the 150 or so rounds to ring in the new steel. It was a good time. I'm also shooting with the aide of a shot-timer now, so I have no excuse to not get better at shooting.

I'm not using the Zack holster anymore, but have instead resorted back to the Bladetech IWB after a bit more modifications to make it conceal better. It's now an abomination, which is the title I now refer to it as whenever I speak of it. The Abominable Bladetech hides a full sized Glock 17 like it's not even there, and will do it all day long without any problems, even while driving or sitting for hours. It dawned on me how dangerous having screws inside the trigger guard can be if they ever decided to back out, so I epoxied the rubber plug thingy to the outside of the holster, and it's very secure. I also added some padding and stuff, as well as some duct tape, and it's now a sight to behold. Damn, it's comfortable though, and fast, too. I'm averaging around 1.9ish seconds from a concealed draw, which is not too shabby. I'll have to get some fresh pictures out there for folks to laugh at.

Like they say: if you can't be a good example, then be a horrible warning!

I didn't try carrying with the Zack anywhere else on the waistband other than in the front, and I also didn't try canting the weapon. One thing I noted in comments was that the gun carries better if you adjust the slack out of the cord so that it takes the weight of the gun and keeps the trigger guard area off the belt.

I also added in my thoughts on the best part of using the Zack for AIWB: you don't have to holster a loaded pistol down into your pants -- that being the most dangerous part of AIWB carry. You will notice that he snaps the Zack onto the Glock while it is out of the waistband, and then tucks it in.

Anyways, The Crovel looks like a solid piece of gear to own for when the zombies attack while the world ends, or if you just got your XTerra stuck in the mud during a thunder storm. My truck is outfitted with a machete, an axe, and a WWII folding shovel that my Opa had on his back when he was in Korea (I don't know if he had it with him on Normandy, but I wish I had known to ask). It would be handy to have all of those tools combined into one.

Many years ago I witnessed a 2,500 hp mud-bogger with 44" paddle tires puke a red-hot piston through the hood and into the air under full throttle. I thought it was bad ass. Seeing the aftermath from when a train ejects a piston is still pretty cool, but more than a little scary.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Toy making dude #1: (Holding up shitty plastic stegosaurus) "HEHEHAHAHAHAHAH! Dads of the world will cry out in lamentations when they step on this toy!Toy making dude #2: "Dude, stegosaurus didn't have that many spikes on its tail. They had like four or something. Is that. . . .metal?"#1: (Petting the toy now) "Yeeesss. Yeeeeeessssss! Tuuuuungsteennnnn! I've put tungsten in the tail spikes, and razor blades in its back plates!"#2: "You're gonna get us fired. Why don't you just stick with using plastic like we're supposed to? It's just supposed to be a simple toy."#1: "But tungsten will penetrate even the toughest callous! Perforate the feetses, it will!"#2: "That's not right, man; that's going to fuck somebody up! You should be locked in prison for the rest of your creepy, screwed up life! You're insane!"#1: "MHOOHWHOOHWAAHAAHAAHAAHAA!!!"

And there I was, on my ass on the carpet in the dark holding my wounded foot. With my head on the floor, tears were welling up in my eyes, which were shut tight like a lock; stars speckling the blackness. I had fallen prey to the toymaker when I stepped right onto his cruel sadistic trap with bare feet.

"Curse you, plastic moldsman!" -- Dwayne. LaFontant! From the movie Over the Hedge

I haven't stepped on a plastic dinosaur in a few weeks, but I did have one of those PETS toys take me down a few days ago, and yesterday morning I walked right into a large plastic plaything in the dark in the hallway while holding a kid, almost planting my face into a wall. I've fallen more times than I can count due to toys on the floor, and last night I told my wonderful wife that we need a 35% reduction in toys to make room for the ones we will be getting next month. My idea was met with the comment to not bother, that the kids won't be getting many toys this year, which is precisely what I have heard every year. I'm skeptical.

When I was a kid, I recall many times when I left my toys out on the floor or on the stairs. Leaving them on the stairs was a serious offense, and my sister and I would be playing in a bedroom when my dad would come roaring in, spanking assess like it was the end of the frickin' world. I never understood why he got so pissed off from stepping on some green plastic soldiers. The man is huge -- my big-buff-rough-and-tough-and-stuff father who could kill six bears with his hands gets mortally wounded from a small, inanimate object? Whaaaaaat?

Now I know.

I see myself very soon creeping stealthily about the house while everybody's asleep, like an angel of death with a trashbag, sweeping up all the toys that I loath. I will cast them in a fiery furnace and burn them into a brittle, black ball of charred plastic while I laugh maniacally at my work. Soooooooon!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

I was wondering yesterday morning about why some ammunition manufacturers put "Law Enforcement Ammunition" on the front of some of their self defense ammo. To me, it could potentially offer some litigation in a shooting, but not in the way that's normally discussed.

One box of ammo in that picture -- Federal Gold Medal Match -- is not branded with a law enforcement logo despite it being a common choice amongst police who use rifles. That specific load is perhaps the most used round by police snipers. Both the Federal HST and Winchester Ranger-T are labeled "Law Enforcement Ammunition," while the Speer Gold Dot is labeled "The Choice for Law Enforcement" - a little less damning. I note that there's no federal law that I'm aware of that prohibits the use of this ammo to non-law enforcement. It's only company policy.

The argument goes that if the common man shoots a home intruder or violent scumbag using such ammo, that a prosecutor has an angle against the shooter because he used ammo that's designed for cops. I think that line of thought doesn't hold water because most police agencies chose ammo -- handgun ammo in particular, which is what I'm talking about in this post -- because it consistently meets a variety of criteria: meets the FBI requirement for handgun ammo; feeds reliably in the department's duty weapons; doesn't induce premature wear in duty weapons, and is accurate enough to be serviceable. Does any of that sound like what you would want in a handgun load for your personal defense weapon? It does to me.

Notice that nothing in there has anything at all with being more effective at killing people. It's agreed by the FBI, who's testing is considered the gold standard, that in order to "protect. . the life. . and the life of others, [and] to prevent serious physical harm [when applying deadly force to a human being]" -- "it is done with the explicit intention of immediately incapacitating that subject in order to stop whatever threat to life or physical safety is posed by the subject. Immediate incapacitation is defined as the sudden physical or mental inability to pose any further risk or injury to others." Emphasis mine.

Nothing in the preface of the FBI's standards for handgun ammunition, or anywhere in it for that matter, have anything to do with killing. The death of a subject of a police shooting is a side effect; one that is unintentional and unplanned: "The concept of immediate incapacitation is the only goal of any law enforcement shooting" -- and this is the only goal I would have if I were involved in a shooting as well, and should be for anyone who defends their life from another person.

In order to satisfy the FBI's minimum 12" penetration requirement in ballistics gelatin, in the many different barriers that are often encountered in shootings, simulated barriers are shot through into the gelatin. This is done for consistency and testing purposes. The barriers are: heavy clothing; auto glass; wallboard; plywood, and steel. Notice that in the linked ballistics information for Winchester Ranger-T, there's nothing there about killing potential. That's because there is none. Can you think of any scenario where you would want your ammo to perform against those barriers if you had to shoot someone to protect yourself, your family, or an innocent life? I can.

A common argument advocating for the common man to carry law enforcement ammo in a personal arm is that the ammo has been tested to perform in a reliable and predictable manner, and those virtues are something that one would want. If you had to gun down an attacker at a gas station, wouldn't you want to be using a load that has been tested to the highest standard? As I pointed out, cops aren't issued ammunition because it has a higher killing potential; their ammo is designed to feed in their weapon, and be accurate and predictable. Those are the same reasonable requirements that I want.

The reason I think that these ammunition manufacturers are walking a dangerous line with their "Law Enforcement Ammo" label is that it can be claimed that the ammo is somehow more dangerous or deadly, and because of this it can't be trusted to the common man - only police. Again, while it's obvious that police don't use this ammo because of killing potential, a police agency may still have to prove in court that their chosen fang-face-patriot-ninja-death ammo wasn't in the best interest of the deceased subject who was gunned down by one of their employees. So then my question is: what reason does a manufacturer have to make such a stark and divisive statement for their ammo? They could advertise that their ammo has met law enforcement standards, which would be far more defensible than branding it LEO only. I think that making that statement can be misconstrued, and that they would do well to ditch it in favor of something less damning.

Yes, the one I blogged about the other day. Some new information has come out, in that the victim was carrying his Glock tucked in his waistband without a holster. With the gun carried this way, there's nothing covering the trigger guard, which creates a dangerous situation in that something can inadvertently come into contact with the trigger and cause it to fire. A friend of the man said it's likely that he was carrying the gun loose in his pocket. I have a friend who carries a full up Glock 17 loose in his back pocket on occasion, and I've warned him about the dangers. I've offered him a holster of his choice from the many that I own, as well as instruction and ammo, but so far life has been too busy for it to happen. I'm going to push harder for a range trip now.

With a gun shoved into the front of the pants, discharging it can put a round through the femoral artery, which is the main strike against appendix carry. If carried in a serviceable, quality holster, and proper care is taken during re-holstering, this sort of accident is avoidable.

It's crushing to hear that this happened to an innocent man, in front of his kids, no doubt. My father-in-law called my wife when he found out because he thought it was me: I shop at that store with my four kids; I have a minivan, and I carry a gun. I'm thankful for the air in my lungs, and my prayers go out to the man's family.